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Ab initio investigations of magnetic properties of ultrathin transition ...

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4.2 Results <strong>of</strong> 3d-Monolayers on Rh(001) Substrate 57<br />

Magnetic moment [μ Β ]<br />

4.0<br />

3.0<br />

2.0<br />

1.0<br />

0.0<br />

0.4<br />

0.2<br />

0<br />

FM<br />

AFM<br />

1 ML 3d on<br />

Ag(001)<br />

Pd(001)<br />

Rh(001)<br />

V Cr Mn Fe Co Ni<br />

Rh(I)<br />

V Cr Mn Fe Co Ni<br />

Figure 4.5: Magnetic moments <strong>of</strong> 3d TM monolayers on Ag, Pd and Rh(001) surfaces<br />

(top) and the interface Rh moments (bottom). The TM moments are denoted by full<br />

(empty) symbols for the FM (AFM) solutions. For the FM case the <strong>magnetic</strong> moment <strong>of</strong><br />

the interface Rh atoms is given by full green squares. The data for the 3d TMs on Ag(001)<br />

and Pd(001) are taken from Ref.[3] and [5].<br />

4.2.2 Magnetic order:<br />

The total energy difference ΔE = EAFM − EFM between the c(2 × 2) AFM and the FM<br />

configuration is plotted in Fig.4.6 for the 3d TM monolayers on different substrates. For<br />

the Rh(001) substrate, we found a FM ground state for V, Co and Ni, while it is c(2 × 2)<br />

AFM for Cr, Mn and Fe. The data for Ag(001) and Pd(001) are taken from Ref.[3] and<br />

[5]. For the V and Ni we see that the energy differences are small, 4 meV and 15 meV<br />

respectively. Experimentally, the case <strong>of</strong> 1 ML V on Ag(001) was discussed controversially,<br />

claiming ferro<strong>magnetic</strong> order [125, 126], or the absence <strong>of</strong> ferro<strong>magnetic</strong> order [127], as well<br />

as evidence for antiferro<strong>magnetic</strong> order [6]. Therefore, we checked ΔE carefully as function<br />

<strong>of</strong> several computational parameters, like k-point sampling <strong>of</strong> the temperature broadening<br />

at the Fermi level. No change in the <strong>magnetic</strong> order was found even in the presence <strong>of</strong><br />

external electric fields. From Fig.4.6 we see for V and Cr a <strong>magnetic</strong> trend towards FM as<br />

we change the substrate from Ag through Pd to Rh, while an increasing tendency towards<br />

AFM is observed for Mn and the late TMs. We notice that the <strong>magnetic</strong> order <strong>of</strong> the 3d<br />

monolayers on Rh(001) changes when relaxations are included, which lead to change in<br />

<strong>magnetic</strong> order for Fe since it is close to the phase <strong>transition</strong> region. This highlights the<br />

importance <strong>of</strong> relaxations to predict the correct <strong>magnetic</strong> ground state, especially when<br />

the nearest neighbor interactions become weak and higher order interactions cannot be<br />

ignored as we will see later.

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